Book Board Chat

A book for a buck?

Those Dollar Store books, so there must be some people who buy them"¦ right? How did these books end up at The Dollar Tree? Are they even worth buying or reading? If you're looking for decent reading material, look elsewhere, friends. I was actually kind of horrified at what passed for "books" in most dollar stores: Self-help books, like "Achieve Sales Excellence," by Howard Stevens. Or workout books like "Jerry Anderson's Joy of Fitness for Women," or "Knock Out Fitness with Mario Lopez." There were sleazy romance books, like "Tan Lines," by J.J. Salem. There were cheaply-made cookbooks published by the tiniest of printing houses; books printed by niche publishers.

There was a handful of books printed by honest-to-goodness publishing houses, but there was not one book— in any of the Dollar stores— that I would buy. Not. A. Single. One.
Actually, the only brick-and-mortar store with a decent dollar book selection was Target, which offered children's classics like "Little Women," by Louisa May Alcott; "Heidi," published in 1880 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri; "Frankenstein," by Mary Shelley; "The Time Machine," by H.G. Wells; and "Tom Sawyer," by Mark Twain.

Friends, if it's cheap used books you're looking for, look online. On the Internet, we're talking a whole other enchilada. Great books, from old classics to current New York Times Bestsellers—many for less than $1. I've noticed a growing number of books on Amazon or Kindle for 99 cents. Heck, if you dig around in Amazon's "Bargain" section, you can find a bunch of books for under a buck; I found some as cheap as a dime.
Of course, you have to pay shipping fees for Amazon books—but if you have a Kindle or an iPad, you can download books for a flat 99 cent fee.

I found books and e-books for a buck or two on Amazon, half.com and iBooks. If you're in the market for real, paper books, check out half.com.

The following classics are 75 cents on half.com:
"Things Fall Apart," by Chinua Achebe
"To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee
"The Catcher in the Rye," by J. D. Salinger
"Of Mice and Men," by John Steinbeck
"Lord of the Flies," by William Golding
"Fahrenheit 451," by Ray Bradbury
"The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"The Things they Carried," by Tim O'Brien
"Animal Farm," by George Orwell
"Slaughterhouse Five," by Kurt Vonnegut
"Their Eyes were Watching god," by Zora Neale Hurston
"In Cold Blood," by Truman Capote
"The Outsiders," by S.E. Hinton

Even these recent and former best-sellers were 75 cents on half.com:
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," by Steig Larsen
"The Shack," by William P. Young
"Water for Elephants," by Sara Gruen
"The Kite Runner," by Khaled Hosseini
"Into the Wild," by Jon Krakauer
All the "Harry Potter" books by J.K. Rowling.
"Twilight," by Stephanie Meyer
"The Giver," by Lois Lowry
"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime," by Mark Haddon
"The Road," by Cormac McCarthy
"Tuesdays with Morrie," by Mitch Albom
Again, the list goes on and on.

In conclusion, friends, if you want a good book, go to a book store. If you want a good, cheap, used book, go online. And if you need some wrapping paper, may I suggest The Dollar Store.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111008/ENTERTAIN/110080308/1018/OPINION